ECMA 368/369 is a standard specification for the Physical (PHY) and Medium Access Control (MAC) layers of a High Rate Ultra Wideband (UWB) wireless communication system. ECMA 368/369 has received acceptance as a common platform for technologies such as next generation Bluetooth®, Wireless Universal Serial Bus (WUSB) and Wireless Firewire (IEEE 1394). The specification supports a MAC layer and a PHY layer that runs at data rates up to 480 Mbps. The PHY layer is designed to operate in the 3.1 to 10.6 GHz frequency spectrum.
The ECMA 368 PHY layer uses Multi-Band Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex (MB-OFDM) to transmit information. The operating frequency spectrum is divided into 5 radio band groups. Each radio band within a radio band group has a bandwidth of 528 MHz. The first four radio band groups have three radio bands each with a bandwidth of 528 MHz and the fifth radio band has two radio bands with a bandwidth of 528 MHz, for a total of 14 radio bands, each with a bandwidth of 528 MHz. The specification requires a device, such as a wireless transmit receive unit (WTRU) to operate in at least the first radio band group. Operating in the other radio band groups is optional.
The ECMA 386 MAC layer has a completely distributed architecture and provides MAC service to a higher layer protocol or adaptation layer. There is no central coordinating device and each WTRU in a network supports all MAC functions. Each WTRU within radio range coordinates with other WTRUs using periodic beacon frames. The beacon frames provide network timing, scheduling and capability information as well as other information and functions.
One way in which the beacon frames provide information is via an information element (IE) included in the beacon frame or in a command frame. This IE may include a beacon period (BP) switch IE and/or a distributed reservation protocol (DRP) IE. The BP switch IE, in particular, may include an element ID field, a length field, a BP move countdown field, a beacon slot offset field, and a BP start (BPST) offset field.
In addition, MAC superframe structures from ECMA 368 include beacon periods (BPs) and medium access slots (MASs).
FIG. 1 shows a typical format of a DRP IE 100 in accordance with the prior art. The DRP IE 100 may include an element ID field 102, a length field 104, a DRP Control field 106, a target/owner DevAddr field 108, and a series of DRP allocation fields 110.
ECMA 368/369 supports data rates up to 480 Mbps. These rates are inadequate to support applications such as high definition TV (HDTV), which requires data rates of 1 Gbps or greater depending on the format. It would therefore be desirable to have a UWB system with both PHY an MAC layers that support high data rates (1 Gbps and above).